Overview

Lungs is a captivating collection of word and visual poetry that transcends the boundaries of the ordinary, inviting readers into a world of introspection, transformation and renewal. The author presents a exploration of the human condition, where reality blurs with the fantastical and every verse feels like an intimate reflection on change and rebirth. Through a mixture of playful wit and deep analysis, Lungs helps readers to start an emotional journey to explore the fragility of our identity, reflecting on the moments that define our past and the quiet battles we fight within. By contemplating our experiences, we will be rewarded with personal evolution and a deep understanding of real transformation.

Full Product Details

9781909362888

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Ailsa Holland knows that being a woman is 'not for cissies'. Nor is it 'a circus of paints/ and nails and lashes and heels and tucks, / it's just this body'. The cast of voices she assembles, from Ophelia to Mary Magdalene to Calliope to her dying mother know this too. It is about sex, salt, children, work, fatigue, bones and trilobites. To read it is to feel enlarged, capacious, full, not out, of breath. This is a book for everyone.' Anthony Wilson 'Poignant, irreverent, dark, funny and deeply thoughtful. 'Lungs' are breath, breath is life, and life is colourful, messy, painful, joyous, filled with people and with aloneness, seasoned with love and grief. Dancing between the mundane and the transcendent, there are goddesses, there is birth and death and oh so many questions, with playful lung-inspired images giving us a moment to pause and catch our breaths. Holland calls a poem 'the broken spoken'. Here it is not only spoken but sung, celebrated, breathed.' Tania Hershman 'Earthed in our everyday experiences and sometimes angry. Between poems of fossil song, crying with laughter, and fuckedupness, sit Ailsa Holland's photographs. Quietly crafted, these visual assemblages invite us to explore the materiality of respiration. For those wanting to find straight-ahead ways of spending their time, you can keep your shiny stuff. For all imps and menopausal mermaids, bring a cuppa and feel the love.' Jules Sprake

Author Information

Ailsa Holland studied English Language and Literature (and related subjects) at the universities of Oxford, York and Southampton. She wrote her PhD on British writers in Vienna in the 1930s. She has lived and worked in Germany but now lives in Macclesfield, Cheshire with her bilingual family, translating and writing poetry and prose.

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